When It Comes To Challenges, Few Can Match the Ability of Brewers' Gary Sanchez

When Gary Sanchez made his fifth start behind the plate Sunday for the Milwaukee Brewers, it was another opportunity to take advantage of a new strength to his game.

Making an automated ball-strike challenge.

But the game against the Miami Marlins was the second game with Sanchez did not challenge a pitch from his catching position. Too bad. Sanchez is pretty good at it.

Sanchez also didn't challenge an umpire's ball call for one of the Crew's pitchers in his first start at catcher this year. In between, the slugger who has never been known for his defense has gone 4-1 in challenges.

That could be because Sanchez has always had a pretty good eye as a hitter. He entered this season with a 9.1% walk rate in his first 11 MLB seasons, jumping up to a spectacular 23.2% this year. The MLB average is 8.4%. Sanchez hasn't been as successful as a challenger when he is hitting, going 5-5. His 10 challenges as a hitter are the most in MLB entering Monday's action.

But now he gets to put that skill to use as a catcher.

There are two metrics that show that Sanchez's ability to challenge has been right on, while also saying that he hasn't challenged enough. They both have to deal with what Statcast calls reasonable challenges. A reasonable challenge is defined as an incorrect call when the pitch is within 3 inches of the edge of the strike zone and an overturn would gain 0.3 runs and the pitch carries an expected challenge rate of at least 20%.

The first is rating the challenges by a catcher. As you will see, all five have been classified as reasonable. Sanchez has a 100% reasonable challenge rate. The only miss he had as a catcher was a curveball that missed by half an inch. The second is the number of reasonable opportunities taken to ask for a challenge. That is where Sanchez has been a bit shy, taking only 19% of the reasonable chances. Some of that could be a credit to the Brewers' pitchers always being on the edges of the strike zone. The other part might be when Sanchez has been told by the coaching staff and the analytics team when he should challenge.

Maybe Sanchez develops more confidence in challenging as the season goes along and more data is there to show how good he is at this. Among catchers, Edgar Quero of the Chicago White has the most challenges at 30 and Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals the most successful challenges at 16. Sanchez's running mate, William Contreras, ranks second in both categories at 26 challenges and 15 overturns.

To be fair to the umpires in five calls Sanchez has challenged as a catcher, they were all borderline calls and it is easy to see why they might have called a ball. The most egregious call, which wasn't that egregious, was half a ball inside the bottom of the zone.

Here is a look at Sanchez's five challenges while catching:

First: April 4 at Royals (Game 2)

Situation: 0-0 count to Carter Jensen, two outs, bottom fourth, nobody on, game tied 2-2. Sanchez failed to catch a 98.2 mph sinker from Brandon Sproat.

Challenge result: Successful. Ball clipped the bottom middle of the zone, making the count 0-1.  

Second: April 4 at Royals (Game 2)

Situation: 0-1 count to Vinnie Pasquantino, two outs, bottom eighth, nobody on, Brewers lead 8-2. DL Hall threw an 84.5 mph slider.

Challenge result: Successful. Ball caught the low-outside corner of the zone, making the count 0-2.  

Third: April 8 at Red Sox

Situation: 2-1 count to Roman Anthony, no outs, bottom third, runners on first and second, game tied 0-0. Shane Drohan threw a 93.7 mph four-seamer.

Challenge result: Successful. Ball hit the lower outside portion of the zone, making the count 2-2.  

Fourth: April 8 at Red Sox

Situation: 2-1 count to Willson Contreras, one out, bottom third, bases loaded, game tied 0-0. Drohan threw a 77.1 mph curveball.

Challenge result: Failed. Ball was just off the lower-outside corner, keeping the count 3-1.  

Fifth: April 15 vs. Blue Jays

Situation: 1-0 count to Lenyn Sosa, two outs, bottom seventh, runners on first and second, Blue Jays lead 1-0. Hall threw a 85.4 mph changeup.

Challenge result: Successful. Ball clipped the inside corner at the top of the zone, making the count 1-1.  

All of this shows that when Contreras needs a day off behind the plate, Sanchez provides value as a catcher. None of his challenges have flipped a walk to a strikeout yet, but that is sure to come. All but one of his challenges have helped swing a count to a more favorable situation for whoever is on the mound for the Brewers.

As a hitter, Sanchez has been more aggressive than any hitter in the game with 10 challenges. His five successful challenges are in a five-way tie for the most in MLB, while his five unsuccessful challenges are in a two-with tie with Atlanta's Ronald Acuna Jr. for the most. Only one of Sanchez's hitter challenges has flipped a strikeout and extended an at-bat. Acuna ranks second with eight challenges.

Taking those same metrics from above regarding reasonable challenges and applying it to Sanchez the hitter, 60% of his challenges have been reasonable, while he has only taken 50% of the reasonable opportunities to tap his helmet.

The question really is: Why does Sanchez feel twice as aggressive when hitting than when catching? Perhaps because it is only his plate appearance at stake as opposed to a pitcher's rhythm. But even that momentary delay would give whoever is pitching a quick breather, something generally unavailable in the pitch-clock era.